My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this past Thursday. As a big surprise, my four siblings who live across the county came into town. It was fun to coordinate things with everyone and to pull off such a big surprise. It was amusing also to tell my parents all of the things they thought I was doing all week when I was actually getting ready for the anniversary. My sister asked my Mom if she thought we could be so thoughtful and she said "No!"
My sisters and I gave my parents some beautiful pasta bowls. We tried to focus on gifts that had to do with family stories or memories. Back before I was born (but I think my Mom was pregnant with me) my Mom had had enough with her six kids who were acting like pigs. She made a big pot of spaghetti, put a plastic tablecloth on the table and dumped the entire pot on the table. She told my siblings that if they were going to act like pigs then they were going to eat like pigs also. Half of my siblings were offended and left the table and half happily stayed at the table to eat like pigs. Our personalities are somewhat summarized by those who stayed at the table and those who left. Everyone agrees I would have stayed. The new bowls are to show my parents we are a little bit more grown up now.
My Mom could not stop smiling all weekend.
Brian took this nice photo of all of my siblings. Brothers and sisters came in from Minnesota, Chicago, Connecticut, and Seattle.
Here are a few photos from last weekend. We had some lovely weather on Saturday which was nice because all week weather.com said it would be raining. We headed over to Union Square to enjoy the little farmers market (although it was a high-end, organic farmers market.) We got tickets to a play near there. We saw "The Seagull" by Chekhov- you know, some light Russian fun. We were considering seeing "The Seagull" or "Xanadu" and we decided to make the more mature choice. We thought we might respect ourselves more in the morning. All the complicated situations made us feel good about our functional relationships. I am quite sure our little girl is not hearing impaired because during the play there was a gunshot and my baby jumped.
Our dear friend Megan came from Washington DC to play with us and see the concert on Sunday.
Cherry Blossoms on Union Square
We have had a few crazy days and they are kind of not over yet since Brian is back in Paris until later this week. Sadly I do not yet have photos to post because Brian has our laptop in France.
Last weekend I was able to travel to New York to be in town for his concert. The craziest thing was that Colin stayed home with my parents and niece and I traveled alone (but I did take my 30 week old fetus). It was the first time I have left Colin for more than 4-6 hours and it was strange but easy. He did mostly great while I was gone but was happy to see me on Monday. Our friend Megan came up from the DC area for the weekend and my brother and sister-in-law came down from Connecticut. We were also able to see some great friends from the NYC area who we wish we could see more frequently.
I'll post more later, but Brian did great in his concert on Sunday. He was one of the soloists with the American Symphony Orchestra's US premier of "The Destruction of Jerusalem". It was fun to have him sing at Lincoln Center and Brian had some of the most beautiful things to sing in the piece. Then a few hours after the concert, Brian was on a plane to Paris for another concert tonight. He'll be back with us by Friday morning and then we have a few weeks before his next engagment in Boston and shortly after that we should be having a baby.
Today we finally felt the promise of spring. It was a beautiful sunny sweater weather day. Colin is clearly going to be an outdoor maniac. He wanted to be outside from the time we got home from church until it was time to go to bed and threw a pretty great tantrum because he had to come in for dinner. He was collecting rocks for a good part of the evening and presented daddy with four if his best finds. You can see some of his treasures in his blurry hands above. Vive le Printemps!
Colin was very excited to help open presents, and a little disappointed the presents were not cars and trucks. Yesterday was my birthday, and thank you for all the voice and facebook messages, and even a special dedication from DLF. I am happy to only be divisible by 3 and 11. Brian pointed out how great it will be to be 37 in a few years since it is a prime number again. We have not been prime numbers since 31. With three prime numbers to enjoy in our 40's that should be great too. Brian and I also look forward to being 36 because at that point we will have known each other as long as we have not known each other. Tender.
As a special birthday surprise, Brian booked me a special spa package. I think the package was called "Mother Nurture" and included a 1 hour prenatal massage, a 1 hour facial, and a 1 hour pedicure, including snacks and a food basket with plenty of time to relax in the tea room. It was quite amazing and gave me about 4 hours to think about what a wonderful and thoughtful husband I have. Later that night my Mom watched Colin so Brian and I could go to dinner like grown ups. Very fun. This more than makes up for my kind of sad birthday of last year. Brian was in North Carolina for an opera and I was home alone with Colin trying to pack up the house to move. Colin had a double ear infection, reacted poorly to antibiotics and caught a stomach virus which produced amazing amounts of vomit and diarrhea. It was also the week of my niece's funeral which I was unable to travel home for. Luckily, my friend Mandy flew out to help me pack and many other people lent a hand too. It was still a bit traumatic.
I am getting more and more pregnant (as evidenced by the photo) and the baby has been very active recently. She gave Brian a good kick last night. At our prenatal appointment this week the midwife had Brian feel her head since she was still head up as of a couple of days ago. She is still small enough to flip around, and I feel like she is flipping around all the time. She just needs to be head down and stay that way by 32 weeks. I am 28 weeks and 3 days pregnant, which I kind of cannot believe, even though it is quite obvious.
I received a complaint from my brother that our blog is boring now we are in Utah. Yes, well, life is at times a little boring, especially with Brian gone. I try to keep Colin entertained, some what clean and fed and that is about it. I am also trying hard to minimize some pregnancy complications (but it is not polite info for a blog). Anyway, while I was on someone else's blog, I found info on the Bureau of Communication. I was quite entertained, and if my brother had sent his complaint on an unsolicited feedback form or an airing of grievance, maybe we would be inclined to do something more exciting to post about. It is pretty funny, so check it out when bored or to send a formal email.
Yesterday afternoon Brian heard from his agent that the tenor in a production of La Cenerentola (Rossini's Cinderella) was sick and they were looking for someone to cover in case he is not well enough to sing this weekend. So we had Brian to the airport this morning by 8am. Kind of crazy since we thought we had a bit more time to relax, but they will pay him just for being there, and pay him more if he has to sing. With the new baby coming and Brian keeping his schedule free for the newborn time, extra money will not hurt us. Colin was sad Dada had to go to work (he cried by the door for a while when we got home from the airport) but Brian should be back in just a few days.
Anyway, I am a single, pregnant mom of a toddler again for a few days. If my parents were not close I would go crazy. My belly is getting big, which makes wrestling Colin hard sometimes. If the new baby girl comes as early as Colin did, we would only have 10 weeks until she is born. But if I am overdue, it could be as much as 15 weeks until she comes. Crazy.
When I was taking photos of my nieces, I had the tripod out for some extra lighting. For a long time after I was done shooting, Colin was pretending the tripod was a camera and saying "Smile!" It was very cute and he loved it. He should be a good little photographer someday.
Since we had so much family in town, we went a bit photo crazy. Here are my sister's cute kids from Seattle.
My brother's girls were also here from Connecticut.
Brian got some good photos of Colin's lunch yesterday. Brian feels it documents his descent from good little lunch eater to demented spaghetti demon.
Here is Brian, also for one of my photo assignments. We liked this photo for if he needs something a bit more pensive for some music thing sometime. (Brian says I need to go to the blog writing lab to help me with the last sentence.)
Nephew Mikey. He has an appointment with a barber today.
Here is Grace when she does not have a mouth full of brownie.
If I had not married Brian and if I had been born in 1932 this could have been me. My mom is not sure how we are related, but kind of strange to see your former name in the obituaries. I spent a whole 28 years as Ann Hinckley.
Just for fun and to have a creative outlet, I have been taking a little photography class. One of our assignments was to photograph a day in the life of something, so I did a chocolate chip. This chocolate chip was trying to escape becoming part of a brownie, but in the end was not successful. Thanks to Brian's help and to my niece Grace who selflessly ate some brownie for the last couple shots.
My sister's family is visiting from Washington and my nieces from Connecticut are here, so all the other Utah Hinckley's came over for a big Sunday dinner(17 or 18 people, hard to keep track). Brian is finally home from Florida (yeah!). He was only gone 2 weeks, but it was a long two weeks. Colin was very happy to see his Dada today. All day he would run over to Brian and say "hi Dada!"
At one point during dinner I thought Colin was running around with the cousins but he was mysteriously missing. My niece Anna went to look for him and this is what she found. He is very into moving furniture to get at what he wants and he wanted brownie. It was quite the disaster. We knew something was going on when we did not hear him for a few minutes (you can usually hear him playing or screaming).
Colin did show us that the brownies were not all the way cooked. For next time we will teach him to check with a toothpick.
Kirsten with her siblings in 2005
A year ago this week our niece Kirsten Hinckley was violently taken from us while shopping for Valentines at Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City. It has been a hard year without Kirsten, especially due to the circumstances in which she lost her life. We miss her terribly and will always have a hole in our hearts for her.
My sister-in-law April wrote more about Kirsten and her own experiences in losing an infant son.
I have some very sweet photos of Kirsten at our wedding when she was playing with lots of her younger cousins. The last time I saw Kirsten Colin was about 7 months old and I am glad they were able to meet. Like April, I like to think that Kirsten is still looking out for her little cousins and is keeping our in utero baby girl company until she joins us in the Spring.
Valentine's Day will always be bitter sweet.
Happy Birthday Colin! We have had a great two years (of which I realized we have been on the road for 15-16 months of Colin's life). We had a little party for him on Saturday before Brian had to go to Florida. (Brian is in Jacksonville, FL for a Traviata until mid February. We are missing him a lot.)
Colin got a little shy with everyone singing Happy Birthday, but when we were done, he kept saying "more birthday" and we would sing again. He got pretty excited when he realized the evening was about him.
We also had to light and re-light the candles several times since he enjoyed blowing them out so much.
Colin was a little more excited about the M&M's on his cup cake than the cup cake. He calls them num nums, and would eat them all day long given the opportunity. He also got to use a fancy birthday goblet. He is a funny, busy boy and are so happy to have him!
A new car from Cars, thanks to Uncle Ted and Aunt Libbie
We got Colin a noisy firetruck, since he loves noisy firetrucks.
Colin also got a little play tent, which he calls his house.
We spent a nice restful morning watching the funeral proceedings for President Hinckley. While we are sad at his passing, we are so grateful for all he has done for our Church and the world. It has been lovely looking back on his life and accomplishments.
I got the chance to meet President Hinckley in 1999 and he made fun of the mission I served for our Church. He set my parents apart as mission presidents when they were preparing to leave for England. It was a neat experience to have some time with him. (I think my Dad kind-of could not escape some church service since President Hinckley was a cousin of my Grandpa Hinckley, President Faust was my dad’s bishop growing up and President Monson worked with my Grandpa and Dad. We ran into President Monson in the hallway before the setting apart and he had my Dad in a head-lock talking about former work things.) So before the setting apart we had some time to sit around and chat. President Hinckley was asking us about our lives and asked us about our missions. I said I served in Argentina and President Hinckley said “too bad you did not serve in England” (unfortunately I wasn’t married to Brian yet since he served in England. Maybe a British serving spouse would have counted for something). I stood up for Argentina and said I liked it there but President Hinckley being quite the Anglophile very quickly said “I have been to both places and I know England is more beautiful.” I always hesitate telling this to any of my Argentine friends since England can still be a sensitive subject so disculpame Carlitos y Diana si lean eso. President Hinckley signed my call to go to Argentina so I think I was supposed to go there anyway. I find it amusing that our Prophet mocked my mission. It was still a very special experience to have some time with him and feel of his spirit. At the time I did kind of want to ask him some questions about my future, but I don’t think the prophetic calling really lends itself to fortune telling. When he walked into the room he looked like such a frail old man but that all melted away when he started speaking. It was very obvious how on top of everything he was. He has left us a great legacy and will be missed by millions.
